27 Aug 2015 20:20

Glushchenko hospitalized following his last plea on trial over Starovoitova murder, verdict be given on Friday

ST. PETERSBURG. Aug 27 (Interfax) - The former Russian parliamentarian Mikhail Glushchenko was again sent to hospital from the courtroom following his last statement ahead of the judge's verdict in the case of the in 1998 assassination of State Duma member Galina Starovoitova, the defense lawyer Alexander Afanasyev told reporters.

"Glushchenko's condition has worsened again and an ambulance has been called for. The verdict is to be handed out on Friday," Afanasyev said.

Earlier on Thursday, Glushchenko gave his last speech in court ahead of the verdict.

"I ask the Russian people for forgiveness for things that I have done. Without me, this case wouldn't have been solved. I deliberately wrote my statement to FSB (Russia's Federal Security Service). After that, they brought Kolchin (the convicted perpetrator of Starovoitova's murder) from his penitentiary and he gave evidence against me and then, the investigation began its work," Glushchenko said in his closing statement.

"I handed Kolchin over the instructions on what he had to do under Kumarin's order. Kolchin summoned a meeting that decided by voting, without me participating in it, on whether they would or would not kill Starovoitova. I only handed over to them that it was up to them to decide on that. If I had failed to do that, they would have killed me," Glushchenko said.

As it was reported earlier, a similar accident happened to Glushchenko on August 21. Before the verdict was handed out, he felt unwell and was hospitalized after being diagnosed with a hypertensive crisis.

State Duma deputy and co-chairman of the 'Democratic Russia' party Galina Starovoitova was shot dead on the stairs of her apartment building in St. Petersburg on November 20, 1998.

In June 2005, the St. Petersburg City Court pronounced Yury Kolchin guilty of organizing the assassination of Starovoitova, sentencing him to 20 years in prison, while the perpetrator of the crime, Vitaly Akishin, was sentenced to 23.5 years in jail.

On November 8, 2013, an indictment was issued to charge Glushchenko with crimes stipulated for in the following Russian Criminal Code's Articles "Implication in organizational crime" and "Infringement on the life of a statesperson" in connection with the Starovoitova's murder.